Obama Second in Iowa Poll

Presidential hopeful Barack Obama has pulled into second place behind Hillary Clinton in the latest poll of likely Democratic caucus-goers in Iowa, while Mitt Romney has a sizeable lead among Republicans.

In the poll of 600 Democrats conducted by Strategic Vision, LLC, Clinton led with 28 percent of the vote, while Obama received 23 percent. They were followed by John Edwards with 20 percent, Bill Richardson with 9 percent, and Joseph Biden with 6 percent. No other candidate received more than 1 percent, and 12 percent were undecided.

“Senator Clinton increased her lead among Democrats while Senator Obama also saw an increase in support that allowed him to move into second place,” said David E. Johnson, CEO of Strategic Vision.

“Obama scores best among young college-educated professionals.

“The poll must be disappointing to Edwards, who continues to lose support in Iowa and has now slipped into third place. It also appears that some of the luster is leaving Richardson, who lost considerable support, and that Biden is making inroads.”

In the poll of 600 likely GOP caucus-goers, Mitt Romney got 27 percent of the vote, followed by Rudy Giuliani with 13 percent and Mike Huckabee with 12 percent. Latecomer Fred Thompson got 10 percent and John McCain, only 5 percent. No other candidate received more than 4 percent, and 22 percent were undecided.

“The Republican race remains very fluid at this point,” said Johnson.

“Romney, Giuliani, Thompson, and McCain all saw their support decline while Huckabee increased his support and has overtaken Thompson for third place.

“Romney’s support appears to have plateaued. For McCain, this poll continues what has been a downward spiral for his campaign. This is the lowest McCain has polled since we began our Iowa polling. It is hard to see McCain regaining his footing.”

The poll also found that 85 percent of Democrats and 54 percent of Republicans favored a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq in the next six months.